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| October 15, 2005 | Saturday | Ramzan 10, 1426 |
US teams to set up field hospitals in affected areas
ISLAMABAD, Oct 14: The Disaster Management Committee of the Ministry of Health was told here Friday that three US medical teams were arriving in Pakistan within two or three days to establish field hospitals in the quake-affected areas of Rawalakot, Bagh and Chiniari.
The committee in a meeting, presided over by Health Minister Mohammad Nasir Khan, decided that no child would be discharged from the hospital without proper documentation and identification of blood relatives besides no children would be available for adoption.
The meeting was also attended by Health Secretary Anwar Mehmood and other senior officers of the ministry.
The committee decided to further improve arrangements to receive patients at Chaklala airbase and their onward shifting to different hospitals of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. More ambulances will be made available for this purpose while an officer of the health ministry will be posted as coordinator at the Chaklala airbase.
Patients received at the Chaklala airbase will be immediately shifted to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) depending on the availability of beds.
A team of five lady doctors and 10 female nurses have been sent to Muzaffarabad base camp. More female nurses reporting from the Punjab health department, Aga Khan University, Karachi and mission hospitals of Sialkot and Faisalabad would be sent to the affected areas in addition to more paramedical staff.
Satellite hospitals with adequate staff and supplies will also be established at the National Institute of Special Education at H-8 and Al-Maktoom Special Education Centre at G-7/2 Islamabad.
As and when required, more satellite hospitals with adequate staff and supplies will be established in schools and colleges.
The National EPI (extended programme of immunization) Cell of the health ministry will immediately launch a special immunization campaign covering more than two million population of the affected areas. More than 100 teams from other parts of the country and volunteers will also be mobilized for the purpose.
More vaccinators with adequate supply of vaccines against measles and tetanus will join the immunization teams already working in Mansehra, Muzaffarabad and Rawalakot base camps.
The French team will also assist Pims whereas the Hungarian and Czech Republic teams will establish field hospitals in the affected areas.
Basic radiology, laboratory and blood bank facilities alongwith the relevant staff will be provided to the base camps in Muzaffarabad, Mansehra, Bagh and Rawalakot.
Blood units will be airlifted for the patients being treated in the affected areas. The Punjab health department will be requested to provide refrigerated vans for the safe transport of blood and vaccination.
The spray/fogging teams in Rawalakot, Jaboorri, Sutthan, Nawazabad, Ogi, Bathal, Chattar plain, Bal Mang, Hajeera, Chak, Khaigala, Pakhar, Ali Soojal, Abbasspur, Drayattee, Bangwein, Datoot, Sangola, Phal, Paniwala and Thorad have also started their work in addition to the teams placed at Muzaffarabad, Bagh, Mansehra, Balakot and Ghari Habibullah.
The District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital of Batagram will be made functional by sending necessary staff and supplies.
More improvised indoor beds will be made available at Pims, FGSH (Federal Government Services Hospital), NESCOM hospital, Taxila Christian hospital and other hospitals in the vicinity for the incoming patients from the affected areas.
As and when required, the patients will be shifted to hospitals in Gujrat, Attock, Wah Cantonment, Hassanabdal, Gujar Khan and Jhelum.
World Health Organization (WHO) and Unicef will procure more emergency medical items while eight more teams of psychiatrists and psychologists will join the six teams already working in the affected areas.
IRAN: Third Iranian medical and relief group comprising 15 members arrived here on Friday for proceeding to the earthquake-hit regions.
This medical team, accompanied by a mobile hospital and equipped with all types of medicines, has left for Mansehra in Northern Pakistan for deployment and joining the two earlier groups.
With the presence of this medical and relief team and its joining the two other groups, a complete composition of physicians including staff members, general and orthopaedic surgeons, anaesthesia specialists, general physicians and nurses will extend medical and healthcare services to the quake-hit regions of Kaghan and Bagh located at a distance of 200 kilometres from Islamabad.
Also the third consignment weighting 66,500 tons has also arrived on two aircrafts.
The consignment included 500 tents, 5000 blankets, 100,000 tins of canned food.
Mohsen Roohi Sefat, the Deputy Chief of the Mission and In- charge of the Relief Aid headquarters of Irani embassy, accompanied his military attache Brigadier Bokaie, left this morning for a visit to the quake-hit regions, and the mode of provision of relief assistance by the Iranian relief teams dispatched to those regions.
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